Swiss freestyle skier Mathilde Gremaud again denied Eileen Gu Olympic slopestyle gold on Monday after responding to her rival's strong opening run with a near perfect display. Grimaud, 26, had stopped China's Gu winning three golds at Beijing 2022 when she pipped her to the slopestyle title and she made it back-to-back Games golds in style in Livigno.
Swiss freestyle skier Mathilde Gremaud again denied Eileen Gu Olympic slopestyle gold on Monday after responding to her rival's strong opening run with a near perfect display.
Grimaud, 26, had stopped China's Gu winning three golds at Beijing 2022 when she pipped her to the slopestyle title and she made it back-to-back Games golds in style in Livigno. Gu fell on her final run as she tried to wrestle the gold away from her big threat.
Born in California but competing for China, Gu had taken big air and halfpipe gold at Beijing 2022 but is again without slopestyle glory ahead of the other events in Italy later in the Games.
Gremaud could do a show run carrying the Swiss flag after Gu's fall on the last run, leaving Gu and Canadian Megan Oldham to pick up silver and bronze.
Gu - still only 22 - had also fallen in qualifying on Saturday but recovered to reach the final as one of the top 12.
Each skier had three runs with the best run decided by the judges counting for medals.
Gremaud had led qualifying but Gu was in front with 86.58 after the first run in the final, much to the Swiss skier's apparent surprise.
Oldham placed third after the first run but fell heavily on her second. She got up unaided and held on to bronze thanks to the final leg despite pressure from Briton Kirsty Muir.
A low score from Gu following a slip on the rail second time around allowed Gremaud to pounce with the best run of 86.96.
Gu's fall on her last attempt then gifted Gremaud glory.
Category: General Sports
